Career profile Actor

Table of Contents

• What does an Actor do?
• What is a typical salary for an Actor?
• What personality traits are common among Actors?
  • Career Interests
  • Values
  • Psychological Demands
• What education and training do Actors need?
  • Typical educational degrees
  • Required knowledge and expertise
  • Important abilities
  • Critical skills

What does an Actor do?

Actors play parts in stage, television, radio, video, or film productions, or other settings for entertainment, information, or instruction.

In addition, Actors

• interpret serious or comic role by speech, gesture, and body movement to entertain or inform audience,
• may dance and sing.

What kind of tasks does an Actor perform regularly?

Actors are often responsible for overseeing or executing some or all of the following tasks:

• Collaborate with other actors as part of an ensemble.
• Portray and interpret roles, using speech, gestures, and body movements, to entertain, inform, or instruct radio, film, television, or live audiences.
• Work closely with directors, other actors, and playwrights to find the interpretation most suited to the role.
• Perform humorous and serious interpretations of emotions, actions, and situations, using body movements, facial expressions, and gestures.
• Study and rehearse roles from scripts to interpret, learn and memorize lines, stunts, and cues as directed.
• Learn about characters in scripts and their relationships to each other to develop role interpretations.
• Attend auditions and casting calls to audition for roles.
• Sing or dance during dramatic or comedic performances.
• Work with other crew members responsible for lighting, costumes, make-up, and props.
• Tell jokes, perform comic dances, songs and skits, impersonate mannerisms and voices of others, contort face, and use other devices to amuse audiences.
• Read from scripts or books to narrate action or to inform or entertain audiences, utilizing few or no stage props.
• Promote productions using means such as interviews about plays or movies.
• Prepare and perform action stunts for motion picture, television, or stage productions.

The above responsibilities are specific to Actors. More generally, Actors are involved in several broader types of activities:

What is an Actor salary?

What personality traits are common among Actors?

Interests

Career interests describe a person's preferences for different types of working environments and activities. When a person's interest match the demands of an occupation, people are usually more engaged and satisfied in that role.

Compared to most occupations, those who work as an Actor are usually higher in their Artistic and Enterprising interests.

Actors typically have very strong Artistic interests. Artistic occupations frequently involve working with forms, designs and patterns. They often require self-expression and the work can be done without following a clear set of rules.

Also, Actors typically have moderate Enterprising interests. Enterprising occupations frequently involve starting up and carrying out projects. These occupations can involve leading people and making many decisions. Sometimes they require risk taking and often deal with business.

Values

People differ in their values, or what is most important to them for building job satisfaction and fulfillment.

Compared to most people, those working as an Actor tend to value Relationships, Achievement, and Recognition.

Most importantly, Actors very strongly value Relationships. Occupations that satisfy this work value allow employees to provide service to others and work with co-workers in a friendly non-competitive environment.

Second, Actors strongly value Achievement. Occupations that satisfy this work value are results oriented and allow employees to use their strongest abilities, giving them a feeling of accomplishment.

Lastly, Actors moderately value Recognition. Occupations that satisfy this work value offer advancement, potential for leadership, and are often considered prestigious.

Psychological Demands

Each occupation brings its own set of psychological demands, which describe the characteristics necessary to perform the job well.

In order to perform their job successfully, people who work as Actors must consistently demonstrate qualities such as cooperation, persistence, and initiative.

Below, you'll find a list of qualities typically required of Actors, ranked by importance:

What education and training do Actors need?

Working as an Actor usually requires a high school diploma.

Actors need anywhere from a few months to one year of working with experienced employees. A recognized apprenticeship program may be associated with this occupation.

Educational degrees among Actors

• 2.1% did not complete high school or secondary school
• 14.0% completed high school or secondary school
• 16.5% completed some college coursework
• 5.4% earned a Associate's degree
• 47.9% earned a Bachelor's degree
• 13.2% earned a Master's degree
• 0.9% earned a doctorate or professional degree

Knowledge and expertise required by Actors

Important Abilities needed by Actors

Actors must develop a particular set of abilities to perform their job well. Abilities are individual capacities that influence a person's information processing, sensory perception, motor coordination, and physical strength or endurance. Individuals may naturally have certain abilities without explicit training, but most abilities can be sharpened somewhat through practice.

For example, Actors need abilities such as oral expression, oral comprehension, and written comprehension in order to perform their job at a high level. The list below shows several important abilities for Actors, ranked by their relative importance.

Critical Skills needed by Actors

Skills are developed capacities that enable people to function effectively in real-world settings. Unlike abilities, skills are typically easier to build through practice and experience. Skills influence effectiveness in areas such as learning, working with others, design, troubleshooting, and more.

Actors frequently use skills like reading comprehension, speaking, and active listening to perform their job effectively. The list below shows several critical skills for Actors, ranked by their relative importance.

What is the source of this information?

The information provided on this page is adapted from data and descriptions published by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration under the CC BY 4.0 license. TraitLab has modified some information for ease of use and reading, and the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment, and Training Administration has not approved, endorsed, or tested these modifications.

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